


Children of the Force

by lexwing



Series: Children of the Force [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Appropriate Use of the Force, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Childhood Friends, F/M, Gen, Young Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:33:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21672289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lexwing/pseuds/lexwing
Summary: In which Baby Yoda changes the trajectory of the Skywalker family forever.
Relationships: Leia Organa/Han Solo, Luke Skywalker/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Children of the Force [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1601830
Comments: 1
Kudos: 162





	Children of the Force

**Author's Note:**

> Finals are coming up, so as much as I would love to play around more with this idea it can only be a one shot for now. Hope you like it!
> 
> A note on chronology: Disney says The Mandalorian takes place five years after the ROTJ. Figuring Ben Solo was born about a year after the Battle of Endor, he would be four years old around the time The Mandalorian starts. This story begins approximately one year after that.
> 
> Updated note: thanks for all the likes, folks.

Five-year-old Ben Solo awoke with a start, his small breaths gasping in the quiet of his dark bedroom.

He rolled over onto his back with a shudder. 

Another nightmare.

For a moment, he considered calling out for his parents. 

His dad was off world now. 

However, he knew his mother was in her room just next door. She would come running, if he called for her. She always did. 

When she was home.

Instead, Ben chewed on his lower lip as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He stared up at the X-Wing and B-Wing models suspended from his ceiling. 

He was old enough to know there was not anything to be afraid of, not really. Bad dreams were not real. That’s what his mother always said.

Still, he shivered a bit and pulled his blankets higher up on his shoulders.

They always seemed so real, though. He could never really remember them when he woke up. All he knew was that the cold voice, slithering out of the dark, reaching for him, scared him. 

He had never been able to adequately explain just how much it frightened him to his parents. How could he explain something he didn’t really understand himself?

He rolled over onto his left side, looking out into his room. And gasped as he came nose to nose with a tiny, wrinkled face. 

This time he did cry out.

“Yaaaashhh!!!”

The child-sized whatever-it-was cooed at him, their ears wiggling forward and backward at the sound of his yelp.

“Don’t do that!” Ben scolded, his fear instantly forgotten. 

“You’re not supposed to be out of bed in the middle of the night! Does Uncle Luke know you’re up?” He sat up and pushed back his covers, glaring down at the tiny being next to his bed.

“Ben?” The sleepy voice of Ben’s mother, Leia, drifted through the wall from her room next door. “Is everything ok?”

“Yeah, Mom,” he said back, trying not to be too loud, but just loud enough. “The kid’s out of bed wandering around again. Don’t worry; I’ll put them back in their crib.”

“Thank you, sweetheart,” Leia told him. Ben could hear the rustling of her blankets as she settled back down to sleep.

“See what you did?” Ben told the kid. “She spent the whole day arguing with the other Senators. Luke says she needs her sleep.”

The kid tipped their oversized head from one side to another thoughtfully. Then they reached up their little arms towards Ben.

Ben now felt a bit sorry for raising his voice earlier. 

“Are you cold? You wouldn’t be if you were still in your own bed.” 

Ben reached down and lifted up the small being, settling them beside him on the mattress. 

When Ben’s Uncle Luke had shown up a few months ago with the kid and a strange Mandalorian woman in tow, Leia had sent Ben out of the room. 

His parents, Luke, and the woman had had a hushed conversation. Ben had hovered near the doorway to the kitchen, able to pick up only bits and pieces. Enough to know that the kid had come from the Mandalorians, one in particular, that Uncle Luke only called Mando.

Ben’s dad had not sounded happy with the situation. Ben’s dad hated Mandalorians. Ben wasn’t sure why. 

Han had always said he’d explain when Ben was older. Han said that a lot. 

That evening, Luke and Leia had sat Ben down and told him the kid and the woman would be staying for a while. The kid was of an as-yet-unknown species, Luke had explained, and more than fifty years old. 

Ben still wasn’t sure he believed that. 

The kid barely came up to Ben’s waist. They still could not talk, and tripped over their own feet more often than not. 

They sure looked and acted like a baby to Ben.

They were even cute, in their own way. Certainly cuter than the mushy pink human babies Ben saw in the parks on Coruscant.

Their eyes were the only thing that gave away maybe the kid was not a baby at all. They were oversized, like their ears, as large, dark, and luminous as the nighttime galaxy. 

The kid was currently gazing steadily at Ben.

“What?” Ben demanded.

One of the kid’s knobby little fingers with its long fingernail reached out to stroke the back of Ben’s hand.

“I’m ok,” Ben told them.

It was hard to be sure, but Ben would have sworn the kid looked skeptical.

“Really, I am. Just another bad dream. I bet you have bad dreams too, sometimes, huh?”

The kid blinked. Their whole, tiny hand now rested on Ben’s.

Ben sighed, feeling the gentle hum of the Force buzz through his veins. His heart rate slowed as the warm, familiar sensation spread through his little body.

Ben knew all about the Force. His uncle had it; his mom had it, sorta. 

Ben could feel it, always there, always buzzing in the back of his head. It was something much bigger than him, like a huge ocean wave. 

Sometimes Ben thought it was exciting. 

At other times, it scared him a bit. 

What if, sometime when Ben wasn’t looking, that wave pulled him under and swept him out to sea? How would he ever get home?

The kid did not seem scared of the Force. Like, at all. Ben was still amazed that someone as tiny as the kid could so effortlessly, fearlessly, connect with it. They even seemed to be able to channel it back, as they were doing now.

Chasing away the darkness.

The kid chirruped at Ben. Ben could feel their sadness through the Force.

“I bet you’re missing the Mando, huh? ‘Cause he was, like, your dad?”

They chirruped again.

“Yeah, it stinks being left behind,” Ben commiserated. “I know all about that.” 

He pulled the small creature closer, sharing his blanket with them. “But you’re safe here. Uncle Luke is taking good care of you, right?”

At Luke’s name, the kid cooed again. 

The kid adored Luke. They followed him around the apartment everywhere he went, tripping over their too-long robes. Luke was getting pretty good at catching them before they hit the ground.

“The Mando trusted Luke and Amana to bring you here, so he must be a pretty smart guy,” Ben complimented. “He’ll be ok. I’m sure you’ll see him again.”

The kid seemed to nod their little head.

Ben wasn’t going to admit it, but when Amana was in her full armor, he still found her a little scary. 

Fortunately, unlike some Mandalorians, she could take off her helmet when she wanted to. Underneath it, she was just a regular woman, with reddish hair and a scar on her left cheek.

Leia and Han liked her. Uncle Luke did, too. He hadn’t said anything out loud, but Ben could tell.

Ben yawned, and a second later, the kid yawned too.

“Yeah, I’m tired,” Ben admitted. “Hey, you want to sleep in here for a while? I can still put you back in your crib before everyone else gets up.”

The kid wiggled their ears and burbled happily.

“Ok. Scoot down.” 

Ben held up the blanket so the kid could snuggle up against the pillow next to Ben. The fluffiness nearly swallowed their tiny body. Ben stifled a laugh.

As they fell asleep, dark head next to bald one, the Force hummed gently but steadily, a light in the darkness.

The End


End file.
